Consumers often prefer to cook food in a microwave oven rather than conventional ovens because of the reduced cooking time required to heat foods in a microwave oven. Consumers also want to be provided with the opportunity to cook pre-packaged food products in the package in which they were purchased without the hassle of transferring the food from one container to the next. Unfortunately, however, foods cooked in a microwave oven tend to be tough and/or dry in texture and consistency, rather than tender and moist. When liquid is added to the food in an attempt to retain moisture, the food can become soggy and undesirable. In addition, microwave ovens do not evenly distribute heat to the product being cooked. This results in a cooked food product that may be very hot in one area, but cold in another area. Because of these problems, many people consider microwave cooking to be problematic and generally undesirable.
One method for improving the texture and consistency of food cooked in a microwave oven is to use steam generated by the heated food product to assist in cooking the food. Cooking with steam not only provides moisture for the food being cooked, but also results in more consistent heating throughout the food product. In order to steam cook a food product in a microwave oven, the steam must be retained within a cooking container; accordingly, the container must be at least partially sealed. When a sealed container is used to heat a food product contained therein, pressure rapidly builds as steam is generated from the heated food product. As heating continues, this pressure will continue to escalate until the container's seal is broken, thereby relieving the pressure. This relief often comes in the form of an explosion forcing the covering from the base of the container, resulting in food being ejected from the container. Not only does such an explosion create a mess, but it also undermines the attempt to use steam to cook the food product because the explosion causes a rapid release of the collected steam from the no longer sealed cooking environment.
The release of pressure can be controlled by including one or more vents in the container. These vents create a weakened portion in the seal between the container's covering and its base. When the sealed cooking environment attains a pressure creating a risk of explosion, the weakened portions in the seal allow for a controlled pressure release at the vents. The seal between the container's covering and its base is broken at the point where the pressure release occurs, creating a tab which may be grasped or otherwise used to pull the covering from the base, breaking the remainder of the seal such that consumption of the food product may occur. Such venting configuration is described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,431, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
Such self-venting containers have a variety of applications in the field of food storage and preparation; however, one of their limitations is the lack of compatibility with vertical fill automated machines. A vertical fill automated machine is commonly used to deliver food product to a storage bag. These automated machines have the capacity to fill numerous storage bags at a very rapid rate, making them popular devices in the food packaging industry. Because traditional food-storage bags filled by a vertical fill automated machine lack the enhanced cooking benefits of the self-venting containers described above, food products that have been stored in and thereafter cooked in such storage bags typically lack desirable texture and consistency.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a cooking container which satisfactorily addresses the needs of cost and time-conscious parties in the food packaging industry and consumers of microwaveable food products.